NBA Draft Night Winners and Losers, Videogame-Style

In spite of everyone’s kind of wishy-washy feelings about the 2013 NBA Draft, the event itself provided certainly didn’t lack for surprise and intrigue. There might not have been any clearly transformative players on the board last night, but that might actually have fueled the topsy-turvy way things went. Anthony Bennett went first to the Cavaliers, which almost no analysts were predicting, and several big trades went down. The dust is far from clearing on all this, but which teams were the big winners and which the big losers, speaking—of course—in terms of their prospects in NBA 2K14 next season.

WINNERS

BROOKLYN NETS
Speaking strictly about next season, it’s hard not to like what the Nets pulled off in getting Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry from the Celtics last night for a clutch of expiring contracts, young players and draft picks. Obviously, theirs is not a strategy to build for the future, but in video game terms, it’s a very very video game move. Brooklyn has now put together a starting lineup of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez. Sure, that starting lineup has an average age of 31.4, but they also have a championship pedigree and a jillion All-Star appearances among them. Who’s on the bench? WHO CARES. This team will be sterling in NBA 2K14, although I don’t love Williams as the only guy who can really go get his own shot.

In real life, things are a bit more problematic. They’ve mortgaged their future on the present by relinquishing first round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018, and if they’re going to go deep in the playoffs, they’re going to have to spend a lot of time resting those starters Spurs-style. To do that, they need to develop their bench players and we don’t even know who they’re going to be.

Oh and they also picked Mason Plumlee, who I believe is an ex-president or possibly 19th century detective.

NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
Like the Nets, the Pelicans made their biggest splash with a trade. Quickly dimming hopes for a Twin Towers-esque frountcourt of Anthony Davis and defensively-minded athletic freak Nerlens Noel (which would have been an atrocious pairing in NBA 2K14, incidentally), New Orleans moved Noel to Philadelphia for Jrue Holiday, an All-Star point guard who’s long, athletic and just 23 years old. This sets up a great three guard rotation of Holiday, Grievis Vasquez (a candidate for Most Improved Player last year) and Eric Gordon (if he can stay healthy), with a solid frontcourt rotation of Davis, Ryan Anderson and Robin Lopez. Al-Farouq Aminu isn’t too much to get excited about, but him aside, this is a flexible, fun team that should be a ton of fun in NBA 2K14 (especially with Anderson’s 3-point shooting and the pick-and-roll with Holiday and Davis) and will also be a tough out in real life once everyone settles down.

SACRAMENTO KINGS
It’s borderline amazing that Ben McLemore slid all the way to #7, and he’s a player the Kings need and will instantly make them more fun in 2K14. Getting him likely points to the end of Tyreke Evans and/or Marcus Thornton as Kings and puts a solid shooter and possible offensive focal point alongside DeMarcus Cousins down low. By all accounts, McLemore is also a solid guy just as a guy, which is something Sacramento needs, given their current reputation as a band of misfits and attitude-problem-addled players. But look at the way the Trail Blazers quickly made themselves over from the Jail Blazers to a respectable team with the addition of Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. For a team with new ownership and something of a second lease on life after almost being shipped to Seattle, McLemore could be a beacon that lights the way forward for the franchise.

LOSERS

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
No surprise here, right? The Bobcats appear to be engaged in some kind of bizarre experiment to assemble the most players possible without any kind of actual star or game-changing potential. A year after taking the energetic and defensively capable but offensively suspect Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Charlotte reached for Cody Zeller, an athletic stretch 4 who seems nice enough as a role player, but certainly not a #4 pick. It’s very likely that the three players taken after Zeller (Alex Len, Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore) all have better careers than he does.

It doesn’t do much for the Bobcats as a video game franchise either. Kemba Walker can do some things and Ben Gordon (who’s likely to opt-in on his player option next year) can still make it rain in 2K, but MKG is not great on the digital hardwood because his skillset doesn’t translate well and I expect Zeller to add nothing much at all, although if his shooting attributes are up there he could be one of those guys you always take late in fantasy drafts for Association Mode.

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Here’s what I don’t understand about the Cavs taking Anthony Bennett with the #1 pick: anything. Having witnessed up close the struggles of Derrick Williams to fit into the Timberwolves roster as a tweener with an outside shot and (supposedly) giant athletic talent, I can’t understand how the Cavs envision using the 6’8” Bennett. I suppose they envision him as a small forward alongside Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao, but that seems suspect in a league that’s increasingly going small. A lot of analysts see Bennett as the player with the most upside in this draft, but it’s going to be hard for him to carve out a spot in Cleveland, I think.

As for how he’ll be in 2K14, I expect him to be better than he actually is, which is sort of how Derrick Williams has been in his first two years. Nothing about him screams “I want to use this guy,” though, but maybe he’ll end up being some fun to run alongside Irving, who could definitely use the help out there on the virtual court.

INDIANA PACERS
The Pacers, who ran their starters into the ground this season to the tune of 1218 regular season and 414 playoff minutes, picked Solomon Hill with the 23rd pick when he was ranked 79th by ESPN and 38th by DraftExpress. For perspective on how many minutes that is for your starters, the Heat and Spurs’ most-used lineups COMBINED notched just 1496 minutes in the regular season and playoffs combined. So here’s the problem I foresee for Hill on the Pacers: How do you become a role-player if you never get to play a role? If the Pacers don’t want to collapse again in the playoffs when they have to go to their bench, they have to go to their bench more often, and I haven’t seen anyone who feels like Hill is going to be anything more than average.

In video game terms, this was more or less the Pacers sticking in blackjack. You’re not ever going to play Solomon Hill (just like the real Pacers) and you can stay rolling with one of the better starting lineups in the game, combining Hibbert’s solid defense with West’s safety valve midrange shooting and Paul George’s one-on-one and shooting prowess.